Jeff VanderMeer's Blog, page 151
April 21, 2009
Booklife Turned In…Now It Begins…
Just turned Booklife: Strategies & Survival Tips for 21st-Century Writers following Juliet Ulman’s splendid developmental edit (thanks, Juliet!). Thanks to my long-suffering wonderful wife Ann for her first read, help with reorganizing parts, and subsequent reads of bits. Thanks to my beta readers–you know who you are (I’m currently making sure I’ve got all the names right in the acknowledgments). Thanks to Matt Staggs for adding his ideas and a wider perspective. Thanks to Sir Tessa for calling
Finch Excerpt: Standing on the Ridge, Looking Down
This excerpt seems pretty indicative of the first quarter of this year for me. Anything could happen going forward. Cue: The Black Keys “Goodbye Babylon” for this bit.
An hour later, Finch stood on the ridge and stared down. Far below, the dull blue snake line of a canal. Two detectives in a boat. Slowly making their way northeast. Finch was about three hundred feet above them. Wyte was a large shadow with a white face, the boat a floating coffin. Dapple had been reduced to a kind of question mar
Guest Post: “Finding Your Voice” by Charlie Hills
Finding Your Voice
by Charlie Hills
Is that… is that a diet book? Don’t bother rubbing your eyes; you’re not hallucinating. It really does look like one, doesn’t it? But as the old saying goes, you can’t judge a book by its blog appearances.
My name is Charlie Hills and welcome to the seventh stop on my virtual book tour. For those of you already following the tour, you might find Ecstatic Days an unusual stop. For regular readers of Mr. VanderMeer’s blog, you’re probably finding this appearance e
April 20, 2009
April 19, 2009
J.G. Ballard: Appreciations
My piece on Ballard for Omnivoracious, with appreciations by Mike Moorcock, Liz Hand, Paul Di Filippo, and others. There’s also this piece on BBC and in The Guardian. And more at The Guardian.
This one strikes a little too close to home, just kind of got to me. On a personal note, I came to Ballard through his short stories while still a teenager, through collections like Terminal Beach (1964) and Vermillion Sands (1971). I first encountered Ballard on the back shelves of used bookstores, and tho
RIP J.G. Ballard
Crap crap crap crap. J.G. Ballard is dead. What a great writer. I especially loved the short stories, especially the ones that totally rewired your brain, made you see space and time differently. Crap.
Dave Larsen’s Knives: Form and Function
Everything has a form and a function, and everything has a story of some kind. A knife is no different. It tells a story in the precision of its crafting, or the imprecision. The choice of materials, each of which came from somewhere specific, hints at setting and context: “Black lip pearl overlay,” “Madagascar Rosewood.” The function of a particular knife contributes to the plot. People suggest narrative, yes, but the things people make also suggest narrative. And a secret history. And, often,
April 18, 2009
Random: Robyn Hitchcock, StarShipSofa, and (H)Amsterdam
Just got back from Vinyl Fever, where they were having special in-store performances and sales. I just got my advance for the nonfiction collection, and am a big believer in celebrating each book by indulging in something cool, for myself or someone who helped with the project. In this case, I was really selfish and got this cool Robyn Hitchcock boxed set called Luminous Groove, which contains three CDs with extra tracks–Fegmania!, Gotta Let This Hen Out, and Element of Light–as well as A Bad Ca
Bblurrry Mmornin Ddlights
A little rough this morning, but happy to be sitting down with this and to have gotten that. Yeah! Leena Krohn makes me smile.
Gawd, I gotta get Bookfinch off my desk so I can get back into some fiction writing…meanwhile, this site, pointed out to me by Matt Staggs, makes me laugh really hard. Sample below.
“Hey, do you have a light? How about a BeDazzler?”
April 17, 2009
“Fixing Hanover”/Extraordinary Engines Student Discussion at Furman
As I’ve mentioned here before, my story “Fixing Hanover” from Extraordinary Engines, edited by Nick Gevers, was picked up by three year’s bests: Rich Horton’s Science Fiction: Best of the Year (now being bundled with the fantasy volume), Jonathan Strahan’s The Year’s Best Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Infinivox’s The Year’s Top 10 Stories of SF (audiobook). Awhile back, I also posted about changes in the story from first to second drafts, as well as some first draft material.
Recently, Rima Abun
